An anonymous reader writes from a report via EFF: The federal Government Accountability Office published a report on the FBI’s face recognition capabilities that says the FBI has access to hundreds of millions of photos. According to the GAO report, the FBI’s Facial Analysis, Comparison, and Evaluation (FACE) Services unit not only has access to the FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) face recognition database of nearly 30 million civil and criminal mug shot photos, but it also has access to the State Department’s Visa and Passport databases, the Defense Department’s biometric database, and the drivers license databases of at least 16 states. This totals 411.9 million images, most of which are Americans and foreigners who have committed no crimes. In May, it was reported that the FBI is keeping information contained in the NGI database private and unavailable. It argues in a proposal that the database should be exempt from the Privacy Act.

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Source: Slashdot – FBI Can Access Hundreds of Millions of Face Recognition Photos